No luxury comfort for luxury property market

At $1,300 psf for a Cairnhill Plaza 4-bedder, it might be the lowest for a prime property in the middle of town in the last 10 years. As competition in the luxury property market heats up, owners and investors are finding themselves in a bit of a bind as prices dip and the buyers are few and far in between.

Leasing them out to fund mortgages have also proven to be increasingly difficult as the foreign workforce and pool of expatriates have shrunk due to job losses in the finance, oil and gas sectors. Combined number of secondary market losses registered in the core central region which consists of the prime districts of 9 to 11, the downtown core planning area and Sentosa Cove come up to 63 in the first quarter of this year alone.

As most of the expatriates looking for housing are now middle- or executive-level individuals with smaller housing budgets, smaller suburban properties in areas with regional business and commercial hubs are doing better than larger, high-end apartments in the prime or Central Business Districts (CBD). In fact, property analysts are now finding that more buyers are local Singaporeans who are purchasing a second or subsequent holiday home. As they are purchasing for occupation purposes, rental yields are less of a concern for them and are able to hold on to their purchases till a later date should they wish to sell.